Since Asa has come back from his deployment, our family and the way we want to live our lives has taken a slight turn. Things that we were interested in and relied on before he left, no longer matter to us. And new things have taken their place in our minds and goals.
We both really feel strongly about how we want our kids to be raised and we are fortunate that we are moving in the same direction with those things. We want them to be outside more. We want to spend more quality time together as a family. We want to homeschool our children. We want to encourage them and their interests as much as we can. We want them to wear mismatched clothes and crazy hats if they want to, because who made those rules anyway? We want to take the time to teach them about life instead of rushing through it to get everything done (which is a work in progress). We want to parent as naturally as we can. We want to have home births with all of our future children. We want to make things homemade whenever possible, eat real food, and shop at farmers markets. We want to have a farm and chickens and bees. And we want our kids to be a part of everything they possibly can. We want them to be able to explore and learn and love nature more than any TV show or electronic game. We want to teach our kids about recycling and appreciating our earth.
Each of these things is something we are working towards. We can see how we want life to be and we are taking steps to get there. We sold both of our TVs. We sold our Wii. It was hard at first, because Marley developed a real love for Dora, Franklin, and Diego in Texas. And I depended on that a lot while Asa was deployed and I needed a break during the day. But I can honestly say that it is a relief to not have it, she is a happier, and we have fewer fits since not watching TV anymore.
This movement also comes along with the intense feeling to want to live simply. In the last 5 months, we have cleaned out our rooms at least 5 times. I keep going through and finding toys, clothes, and random things we don't need and I wonder why we are keeping them around. It is so relieving to get rid of them and move them on to someone else. Our society has this huge quest for stuff. The more stuff you have, the happier you will be, right?
Wrong. Less is completely more. My mind is more clear with less clutter around the house, and we even still have things we could say goodbye to. The girls play better and longer with their toys because they can actually see what they have.
All of this culminates into one big point: more time together. The trips to the river, camping weekends, playing in the sandbox, pajama walks, reading and cooking together. They all mean more family time, which we all love. The happiness we feel from this new way of life is amazing.
I feel like we are on this quest to turn our lives into what we want. Right now, the military is limiting a few things because we are stuck here until Asa gets out next March. But our plans and dreams are being made right now. We talk about where we want to move and what we want our lives to be like there. And I am a firm believer that if you want something to happen, you need to make it happen. You can't wait for it to fall into your lap. We get to choose how our lives will go. And that makes me so excited. It feels like this is who we are supposed to be.
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After reading this through, I feel like I just had an explosion of thoughts. I had so much going through my head that I just had to write it all down. I don't usually share this much about the kind of people we want to be or how I feel about certain topics. But this is my blog and I feel like saying these things opens the door to share many more things about us. So, follow along on our journey to make our lives happen.
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